Leong Sun Iok
Over the past four legislative years, majority of the local lawmakers have registered a significant high attendance at all Legislative Assembly (AL) meetings, including Plenary Sessions and meetings from the different Standing Committees, AL’s annual activities reports show.
Based on the report, only two lawmakers have achieved perfect attendance over the past AL term, attending each of the 173 plenary sessions, as well as the Standing Committees, Follow-up Committees, and Committee on House Rules. Lawmakers Ella Lei and Lao Chi Ngai are the legislators who were highlighted for this reason.
The record is even more impressive as both lawmakers had to attend almost 400 AL meetings over four years in total, including plenary and committee meetings.
Nevertheless, a significant number of other lawmakers had an attendance record very close to 100%, including Lei Chan U, Leong Sun Iok, Ng Kuok Cheong, Ho Ion Sang, Au Kam San, and Vong Hin Fai.
Also included in this group is lawmaker Sulu Sou, whose attendance was close to 100% once absences attributable to his mandate suspension were taken into account. These absences were required for the lawmaker to be present in the Court of First Instance to respond to accusations of disobedience and illegal demonstration for an episode dating back to 2015.
Another group of lawmakers with extremely high attendance at the plenary sessions (98.8%) included the AL president and former lawmaker Kou Hoi In and lawmakers Wong Kit Cheng and Agnes Lam.
Leong Sun Iok, Ella Lei
The most absent
Conversely, lawmaker Victor Cheung Lup Kwan has the lowest attendance rate by far, having been present at 61.8% of all plenary sessions and attending just 33.7% of committee meetings. This amounts to an absence at 138 occasions out of a total of 208.
Coming second last was lawmaker Angela Leong, who, over the last term, had an attendance rate of 80.7% across all AL work.
Third most absent was Chui Sai Peng, with an overall attendance rate of 89.6%. Chui only managed to surpass Leong as he had a better attendance score at the committees’ meetings.
Lei Chan U
Average attendance at 96%
The attendance rate of Macau legislators of the 6th AL session was very high, with the general average attendance at the plenary session reaching 95.9%. This roughly translates to the majority of the lawmakers only missing one to two sessions per year.
The large group where the individual attendance rate was above average included lawmakers Chui Sai Cheong, Chan Hong, Mak Soi Kun, Chan Iek Lap, Zhen Anting, Ma Chi Seng, Ip Sio Kai, Iao Teng Pio, Wu Chou Kit, Davis Fong Ka Chio, Lam Lon Wai, and Chan Wa Keong.
With most of the lawmakers (24) scoring above average, only nine lawmakers scored below 96% for attendance rates to AL plenary sessions.
Ng Kuok Cheong
Among these groups and excluding the already mentioned top three most absent lawmakers, we find names such as Pang Chuan (94.8%), Song Pek Kei (94.2%), Chan Chak Mo (93.6%), José Pereira Coutinho (93.1%) and Si Ka Lon (91.9%).
This analysis does not take into account the attendance rate of lawmaker Wang Sai Man, as he was only inaugurated in December 2019 after an indirect constituency’s by-election. The lawmaker was elected to represent the industrial, commercial and financial sector for a seat left vacant by the former president and current Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng exiting the AL.
Three ‘workers’ lawmakers in top five
Besides the perfect attendance score achieved by Ella Lei, another two lawmakers linked with the Macao Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM) have been placed in the top four of those with more attendance to AL work.
In the final ranking, Lei Chan U came second with a 99.8% attendance rate to all AL work, followed immediately by another workers’ lawmaker, the direct suffrage elected Leong Sun Iok (99.6%).
The top five closed with pro-democracy lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong who had an attendance rate of 99.4% for all AL work sessions that he was allowed to participate in.
Lao Chi Ngai
*Note: Sulu Sou’s attendance score was calculated excluding the time that his mandate was suspended, which was approximately six months between December 2017 and late June 2018.
Consequently, he was forced to leave his plenary seat and the seats he held at the Third Standing Committee and at the Follow-up Committee of Public Administration Affairs. This was taken into consideration during the final calculation.
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